"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Feb. 28

It's the end of February. Wow. That was fast.

Here's a pretty amazing video (not all shot in one take) of a boy who has clearly put in his 10 000 hours to become an expert in his field (as per Malcolm Gladwell) of trick bike riding. The fact that he even looks at the possibilities of doing the things he does on a bike is amazing.

And a late addition. A couple of our students were on the CTV news last night for their involvement in RYBL basketball here in Richmond.
Sorry, I was unable to embed this one. It's part of Perry's Prospects.
So CLICK HERE to see a couple of our students

Have a great weekend everyone.

"One Thing" for Thurs. Feb. 27

Last night, Dr. Brandy Wiebe, representing Saleema Noon's organization came to Diefenbaker to speak to our students about sexual health for adolescents.

Today she came to speak with our students in three multi-aged groupings. I attended two of these sessions and found them to be informative. I also was impressed by how much the students already know about what Dr. Wiebe likes to call "Body Science". She included some funny facts and the students giggled a little bit, but overall approached the topic with a level of maturity. Many students also asked thoughtful questions and this led to good discussion about what it is like being an adolescent in the year 2014. Some of them were sent with a bit of "homework" to go home and ask a trusted adult the questions that they may have had lingering after the session today, so we encourage parents to have a conversation with their son or daughter about what they talked about today.

If you are looking for more infomation on this topic, you can go to Saleema Noon's webiste: http://www.saleemanoon.com/

"One Thing" for Wed. Feb. 26

Today was Pink Shirt Day and we had a lot of pink around here:

Pretty in Pink:

Division 2:

Ms. Mathis and Mr. Rollins (turn down that pink!)

This afternoon, we got into our multi-aged Bulldog teams to do some "work" on Standing up for things that we believe in. We wanted to frame things in a positive light and make a statement that we believed there are actions we can take to help "Erase" Bullying, rather than simply talk about an "Anti-Bullying" message.

  "Acceptance"

Two members of a team share a seat

After getting together in our classrooms, the teams then designed and coloured shoes that represented what we "Stood For". 

Here are a few of the examples:

Creativity

Enthusiasm

Empathy

Uniqueness

Happiness

Respect

Thanks to the teachers who helped put this together (Ms. Hinks, Ms. Park and Ms. Matheson). Altogether, we had 32 different words and each group completed one of these posters. Come by the school and check them out. Hopefully our message, and the work we've been doing as a part of "Friendly February" will continue long past today. 

"One Thing" for Tues. Feb. 25

It was Science Jam over at the Aberdeen Centre today and several Richmond schools were involved. I have never been at a school that has participated in the Science Jam but have been to the mall a couple of times to see the experiments on display. 

Janice Novakowski was there today and put together this cool video display using "Animoto" of many of the projects, participants and even the School Trustees who were there. 

http://animoto.com/play/aL3OWESGPI0tvKPYokGkEQ

It looks like there were a lot more inquiry type of projects than there used to be in the past where students would just "reuse" someone else's science experiment "in a can" from years before. Students actually coming up with ideas, hypotheses and then creating an experiment themselves. Good to see. 

"One Thing" for Mon. Feb. 24

This September a new student named Beres joined us at Diefenbaker. He is in grade 7. You don't often get new students for the last year of elementary school, but Beres was moving here from Gibsons (where the family still lives) during the week so that he could attend figure skating practices more easily. Beres had been competing at a pretty high level in BC and the travel over from Gibsons was proving burdensome. He is not in my class, but I got to know him a bit at Outdoor Education Camp, located in (ironically), Gibsons.

This past weekend, Beres was competing at the BC Winter Games in Mission (and some surrounding areas) in the juvenile boys figure skating category. The BC Winter (and Summer) Games happen every couple of years and pit regions against each other. I attended a Summer Games in Prince George myself many years ago and have fond memories of making friends and participating in the sporting competition.

Beres took home the Gold medal!

Congratulations, Beres for all the hard work that got you to this point and good luck as you pursue your future goals in sport and life. We are proud of you, but not as proud I'm sure as your family is. Way to go!

  Beres in his Green Richmond/Delta/Zone 5 team jacket

Results: HERE

"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Feb 21

What a great day. Let's reflect on the legacy that the Olympics in Vancouver (2010) left on us. Canada won 26 medals here in Vancouver (a huge success by all standards, in my opinion) and we've got a guaranteed 25 this time in Sochi.

And yes, after Crosby's "Golden Goal" in 2010 and our Women's team comeback against the USA in hockey yesterday, "I Believe" anything can happen...

"One Thing" for Thurs. Feb. 20

I didn't have much of a chance to see anything happening at school today (or the fantastically exciting hockey game either) as I was in meetings for a good junk of it. However, I did get out and was able to enjoy the (February??) sunshine with some of the girls and boys in the gardening club. We are erecting a "recycled" fence made from old hockey sticks (Go Canada, Go!) in the hope that people will stay out of the garden beds once we have planted some of our seeds (which just arrived today). Hooray. We will plant them as soon as it says we are able to.

"One Thing" for Wed. Feb. 19

 From the "A Picture is Worth 1000 Words" file, here are a couple shots from around the school (taken today and yesterday)...

Division 9 doing Art in the round, (art in the style of Sandro Bottecelli

Lots of great looking beavers in there.

I was lucky enough to drop in on Ms. Park and her birthday tradition for Ernesto. She teaches about fire safety and everything after playing that catchy "Happy Birthday To You Song" from the internet. I know that if I was a student in her class, I would certainly feel special on my birthday (if not every day already). 

And lastly, this is our Long Jump Pit. It's just about ready for Track Attack (starting in April)... 

Or is is ready to be water skied on?

"One Thing" for Tues. Feb. 18

There are a couple of important "footprints" out there these days. Our environmental footprint and our digital footprint. Here's what I found on Twitter today about "How to teach students about their digital footprint:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/01/20/kids-digital-footprint-937/

It's an article from eSchool News and talks about the consequences of images and words that go up online. We have probably heard cautionary tales about employers finding out information that led to the firing (or not hiring) of their (potential) employees after (easily) finding out information about the individual who has posted incriminating information about themselves online. The question is why was the individual not more discerning about what they were doing (or at least posting)? Did they not feel their boss would be able to search the internet?

Have you tried "Googling" (yes, apparently that is now a verb) yourself? Put your name in quotations (for a more accurate search) and see what comes up. I'll wait and see you after you go down an internet rabbit hole for a minute. The first thing that comes up for me is my Twitter account. Then there's stuff about my school and also the video application I did with my sister in hopes of getting on the first ever Amazing Race Canada (a goal of ours ever since the American version of the show first came out). While that's sort of embarrassing, at least it is something that is intended for the internet and we filmed it knowing this was where it was going. Only 146 people have viewed that though, so I'm not too worried.

Back to the article, it states that "The average young person ages 8-18 consumes 7.5 hours of media per day outside of school." That is a significant number. As a teacher, one of our roles is to try and help our students be smart and safe about what they put online and what they share. As soon as something has been put on the internet, there is always the chance that someone has taken a screenshot of it and that even if you take it down, the original can last out there. Forever. 

Is what is out there about you on the internet a true reflection of what you are like as a person? We would like it to be. So talk about this with your children/students and have a discussion about being a positive digital citizen.

"One Thing" for Mon. Feb. 17

At our Professional Development session last Tuesday with Jeffrey Wilhelm, one of the things he stated was that students will only attend to things that teachers give time to. This includes reading. If we spend no time reading in our classrooms (silent reading or reading novels or reading aloud together etc), then the students will not see reading as important.

One of his ideas was to create something that can be updated and shows what we are reading. So Mrs. Hikida made these for all of our staff and handed them out at our staff meeting today:

A couple of us even filled them in already:

So, take a look for these around the school, start a discussion and we'll see where this goes. Sometimes a great idea is a really small one. 

"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Feb. 14

This being Valentine's Day, I thought I would try to post something about that. But you can't force "funny" and I'm not sure there's too much that's funny about Valentine's Day.

Instead, I'm posting 4 links to fake/real websites. I have used these sites in the past to ask my students to think about what they are reading (and assuming is real) on the internet. Ask questions, be critical. Figure out if this could actually be real.

1) Exploding Whale
http://quietube6.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vmnq5dBF7Y

2) Spaghetti Harvest
http://quietube6.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ugSKW4-QQ

3) Dog Island
http://www.thedogisland.com/

4) All About Explorers
http://allaboutexplorers.com/explorers/

Only one of the events in/on these sites is real. Which one is it? Leave a post/comment below if you like.

"One Thing" for Wed. Feb 12 and Thurs. Feb 13

I'm going to blame it on being out of my blogging routine, having missed Monday due to Family day and then also Tuesday due to it being a Professional Development Day, but I missed my first blog post for a school day since I started this. Or I could blame it on the fact I just turned forty and have lost my memory. But I don't think so.

Enough excuses. Onto the blog.

With team Canada's hockey teams playing (the Women defeated the USA yesterday and the Men beat Norway this morning) the Olympics are officially in full swing around here. Obviously, the "Buzz" is nowhere near what it was four years ago with the Olympics being here in Richmond and Vancouver. It is neat to see random people and know that as Canadians we are cheering for our athletes to do well.

It is also neat to see the students at school getting involved and learning about some of the (lesser known) winter sports (some of which Canada is even good at)! In my French class, we have been studying sports, winter sports, various countries and most recently the winter Olympics to prepare ourselves for the big event. Some students are actually getting exposed to an aspect of being Canadian that they might not have known about. For instance, how seriously we take our hockey! I think that's great and one of the great benefits of the $42 billion dollars it costs to run the Olympics.

And here at Diefenbaker, we're doing it all "en français because we are a Late French Immersion School.

Here are some of the sports:

Our Billboard:

And the medal count. Canada's in second according to my researchers!

"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Feb. 7

So, it's my 40th birthday today. I set my alarm for 6:24 (because 24 is my favourite number) and then put it on the radio (I've been using the buzzer for most of my life, but figured why not)... The radio went off, I hit snooze and then sprung up. I turned the radio on again to check if the song I thought I heard was actually the song that was playing. It was. The song? My least favourite of all time. "Mr. Jones" by the Counting Crows. Not because it's a bad song, just because it was sooo overplayed "back in the day."

In honour of that moment, here is a musical "Fun Thing". It's a parody...

If you don't like One Direction, you'll love this. And if you do, then I'm sorry...

"One Thing" for Thurs. Feb. 6

Here is Richmond parent, RYBL basketball coach (my son is on his team) and the first person I began following on Twitter, Chris Kennedy, giving a Ted Talk about his wishes for his children's teachers. Oh, I almost forgot. Chris is also the superintendent of West Vancouver.

Highlights for me from this talk?

• That he'd like to see less homework for homework's sake so that time can be spent asking your child about their day and actually interacting
• that it would be great (especially for parents that can't get to visit their child's school due to work commitments) to be able to see more students work online-posted digitally where possible. Videos, pictures etc being put up on social media so that a parent can be connected to their learning
• opening up more time and space for students to work on longer activities/projects/learning new things instead of in blocks of time in the school day. Something, perhaps, like "genius hour". 

Something, or really, "some things" to think about.

"One Thing" for Wed. Feb. 5

Tonight at the school, local author, Dan Bar-el was visiting and shared some of his stories with us.

Here's Dan:

And some of the crowd.

It was great to see so many people in attendance tonight. The first thing Dan did was to call any parents up to sit with their son/daughter to listen. That was a neat touch. He then talked about the lost art of storytelling. 

The first story he shared (by memory) was this one. He did so with great voices and enthusiasm. Some people are just born storytellers. Most teachers are good storytellers too. Just ask one!

 The next story he told was this one. The kids (and adults) loved his voice of the "Babba"/lady in the forest (who was also the narrator of the story.

For a finale, he read this one.



Thanks to the PAC for putting this event on as part of our February read-a-thon and book exchange.

Finally, here is Dan's website: http://danbar-el.com/

"One Thing" for Tues. Feb. 4

I picked this up from the "Twitterverse" today while I scan my phone for recent educational commentary and watch my son at basketball practice on Tuesdays as a part of "TwitterTuesdays" here in this space:

5 tips on How to Raise a Reader: http://delightfulchildrensbooks.com/2014/02/03/raise-a-reader/

 I've seen lots of these types of articles, but this one is really good, in my opinion.

Especially, #2 and #3:

2.  Do not bribe your kid to read. No pizza. No toys. No extra TV time.
3.  Create spaces where kids have books available and nothing else to do. 
(I love the picture of the kids with the books in the car. Why not?)

My son, like the author's son, is a bit of an anomaly in that he is a boy that really likes to read. I am lucky that he is this way, but it's not by coincidence. Mrs. Rollins spent many (in fact most) nights fostering a love for reading with both of our children. It paid off. I'm not sure how good his comprehension is, but I'm pretty sure that he reads more quickly than I do. I sometimes can't believe when he has finished the book he's on.
One thing that we like to do after the kids get their report cards is head (sometimes with a gift card) to Chapters and pick away. One day, he wanted the Origami Yoda series (above) and I got it for him, read it myself (as I'm a Star Wars fan) and ended up enjoying it so much I read it to my grade 6/7 class (and they loved it too)! Go figure.

My next goal is to lend him my favourite book of all time (a fantasy Epic titled "Wizard's First Rule" and see how he does with it. I just have to wait to get it back from my overseas teaching partner, Mr. Out...

"One Thing" for Mon. Feb. 3

Well, we are into February. To me, even though it includes my birthday and Valentines Day, February has always been a bit of a bleak month with days being dark after school (due to Daylight savings) and typically, poor weather. Not so today, however. Maybe this coincides with the fact that we are running a "Friendly February" theme in our daily announcements. each day, our Me To We group has made up mottos/axioms to try and follow for the day/month. All of these are centred around the theme of friendship.

What a great idea. Perhaps this February will look a little brighter. I feel that it already has.


In addition, I think this video shows that depending on the words one uses, an entirely different perspective on things can be seen. Maybe as we are thinking about being friendly to others or making a difference, we will think carefully about what words we use when we say something to our friends (or those who aren't yet friends)...Watch and see if you agree.

I'm not sure it's February in the video, but maybe it is...